Adil Charkaoui

Adil Charkaoui (1974-) was a Morocco-born Canadian imam, Arabic language teacher, and sheikh who was arrested as an alleged member of al-Qaeda.

Biography
Adil Charkaoui was born in 1974 in Morocco, but in 1995 he moved to Quebec, Canada with his sister and parents. He graduated from the Universite de Montreal and became an Arab language teacher in addition to an imam and sheikh, and he became the director of the Assahaba Islamic Community Center. In the late 1990s, he associated with other Montreal Muslims who had fought in Bosnia, Afghanistan, and the Sudan, and in 1998 he slipped across the border to Afghanistan after flying to Pakistan before training at the Khalden training camp. He became friends with Raouf Hannachi, a local Canadian extremist leader, and he allegedly provided funds and resources to al-Qaeda. In May 2003, Charkaoui (who had run a pizzeria for two years) was arrested by Canadian police for his terrorist activities, but on 18 February 2005 he was released on bail for $50,000. On 22 February 2010, he sued the government for $24,500,000 due to his "wrongful arrest", asking for compensation for lost income and legal fees, for Canadian citizenship, and an apology; in 2013, he founded the Quebec Collective against Islamophobia, and he became a citizen of Canada in July 2014.